Some politicians are quick to point to the shooters' disturbed minds. Some news reporters probe for "loner" tendencies or signs of instability.
"It's tempting to try to find one simple solution and point the finger at that," said Jeffrey Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. "The fact that somebody would go out and massacre a bunch of strangers, that's not the act of a healthy mind, but that doesn't mean they have a mental illness."
In a 2018 report of active shooters, the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that 25% of active shooters had been diagnosed with a mental illness. And of those diagnosed, only three shooters had been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. In a 2015 study that examined 235 people who committed or tried to commit mass killings, only 22% could be considered mentally ill.
"We like to think that anyone who kills others is somehow mentally ill," said Phillip Resnick, who served as a forensic psychiatrist in cases including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. "But you have to remember, people kill for all sorts of reasons. They kill for profit or love or greed."
People all over the world suffer from mental illness. It's about guns, not video games or mental illnesses.